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Ploughing clouds, one of the pet sentences to calligraphy of Sogaku Taizen.
One of my favorites too.

What does it mean? Clouds represent thoughts, natural mind activity. Whatever you do, thoughts arise, good, bad, nice, not so nice, nasty, holy, sexy, boring, lots of thoughts. Thoughts is what comes up. Bubbles up. Beginning of a retreat, many. End of a retreat, less. Nothing wrong here. It shows you are alive. Mushin, no mind, does not mean no thoughts. It means no attachment to thoughts. Monkey mind, Gorilla mind, you should not mind. If you look at the poem above in which moon, means Dharma essence, original clarity, awaken activity and clouds stand for confusion, illusions, delusions, desires and the likes...one cannot be without the other. The ploughing will upset and stir lots of stuff and that stuff shows you intimately what the Dharma is about. Without thoughts, no Dharma.

First common misunderstanding : nothing wrong with monkey mind.

You want to be in control? You want to calm down the beast? Get less involved in mental rubbish? Well, welcome to the followers of the first yana as Chogyam Trungpa puts it: you may now get yourself as a wonder Arhat, a spiritual champion, an athlete of the mind, a solitary impeccable and detached sitter. An emaciated ascetic drunk with visions and promises. Totally stunned with the ideas of good versus bad. Well done, a few drinks, the company of a nice looking sexy boy or a great lady in your arms, and your twenty years of sitting in the forest are in the gutter, down the drain. Welcome to the party!!!

Needless to say that as soon as you realize the second yana, Mahayana, the field of confusion, the screaming hords of Mara are instantly embraced by the power of compassion. At the third yana, Tantrayana, they are turned into clarity right on the spot.

Second problem here , you might be stuck in the first step, first yana, seeking for calm and equanimity, using Dharma as a good medecine. And yet Dharma is here to really make a big mess, put the fire to your house of beliefs, totally put things upside down.

So ploughing clouds...digging the dirt as peter Gabriel would say. And realizing that this is really The Dharma field, and dirt is another form of light.

The gorilla i am is going to share a very personal story with you. i was young, young in the dharma, maybe two or three years old ( years after Tokudo). I was sitting in the evening with a local Sangha and the whole show never looked more messy, thoughts, whirling pictures and movies, physical pain, willing to get out of this, out of this mess asap, asap...and just, cutting through all, clarity. Nothing disappeared, the pain, the emotions, the thoughts and all of show was there, and yet everything was OK. In the center of the wheel, resting place in the midst of confusion, not separated from it as many belief systems sell you ( get out and you ll find Heaven), RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF CONFUSION MONKEY BUSINESS was the real place.

So when we have people loosing their time measuring the monkey mind levels...

I had not read the poem but looked it up yesterday because receiving the line 'ploughing the clouds' was like striking gold.
I understand the poem better now from your explanation because I was unclear about 'catching the moon'.

'Without thoughts, no Dharma' - this is so concise and gives great clarity.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Please take all my comments with a grain of salt - I am a novice priest and anything I say is to be taken with a good dose of skepticism - Shodo Yugen

You want to be in control? You want to calm down the beast? Get less involved in mental rubbish? Well, welcome to the followers of the first yana as Chogyam Trungpa puts it: you may now get yourself as a wonder Arhat, a spiritual champion, an athlete of the mind, a solitary impeccable and detached sitter. An emaciated ascetic drunk with visions and promises. Totally stunned with the ideas of good versus bad. Well done, a few drinks, the company of a nice looking sexy boy or a great lady in your arms, and your twenty years of sitting in the forest are in the gutter, down the drain. Welcome to the party!!!

Needless to say that as soon as you realize the second yana, Mahayana, the field of confusion, the screaming hords of Mara are instantly embraced by the power of compassion. At the third yana, Tantrayana, they are turned into clarity right on the spot.

I may be a little lost in my morning fog, but what are you referring to when you speak of the three yanas, Taigu?

Gassho,
Jeff

"Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma."

From an historical perspective, the three yana refer to the three stages through which Buddhism evolved and changed, from the way of the Elders, Theravada, based on discipline and morality, sticking to the original teachings of Shakyamuni.
The second is Mahayana, the so called Great vehicle, based on the Bodhisattva ideal and eventually, esoteric Buddhism, Tantrayana, also called Vajrayana, based on a strong Guru practice and complex rituals transforming poisons into awakening.
In Trungpa terminology, it refers to three styles of practice, three ways to deal with negative emotions for instance, you might get rid of them (first yana), embrace them (second one)or thransform them (third one).
A word of caution though, each yana contains the two other yana. In Mahayana, the kind of Buddhism we practice here, we have a strong Theravada element ( look at the precepts for instance) as well as a Tantrayana flavor ( teachings of the kesa, recitation of certain chants and mantra, also the idea to make use of everything, not to reject anything to accomplish the way).

From an historical perspective, the three yana refer to the three stages through which Buddhism evolved and changed, from the way of the Elders, Theravada, based on discipline and morality, sticking to the original teachings of Shakyamuni.
The second is Mahayana, the so called Great vehicle, based on the Bodhisattva ideal and eventually, esoteric Buddhism, Tantrayana, also called Vajrayana, based on a strong Guru practice and complex rituals transforming poisons into awakening.
In Trungpa terminology, it refers to three styles of practice, three ways to deal with negative emotions for instance, you might get rid of them (first yana), embrace them (second one)or thransform them (third one).
A word of caution though, each yana contains the two other yana. In Mahayana, the kind of Buddhism we practice here, we have a strong Theravada element ( look at the precepts for instance) as well as a Tantrayana flavor ( teachings of the kesa, recitation of certain chants and mantra, also the idea to make use of everything, not to reject anything to accomplish the way).

Gassho

Taigu

That is what I had guessed. I just wanted to make sure it was in that context. I will not take this thread off topic but I am going to send you a private message with my question.

Gassho,
Jeff

"Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma."

You want to be in control? You want to calm down the beast? Get less involved in mental rubbish? Well, welcome to the followers of the first yana as Chogyam Trungpa puts it: you may now get yourself as a wonder Arhat, a spiritual champion, an athlete of the mind, a solitary impeccable and detached sitter. An emaciated ascetic drunk with visions and promises. Totally stunned with the ideas of good versus bad. Well done, a few drinks, the company of a nice looking sexy boy or a great lady in your arms, and your twenty years of sitting in the forest are in the gutter, down the drain. Welcome to the party!!!

Needless to say that as soon as you realize the second yana, Mahayana, the field of confusion, the screaming hords of Mara are instantly embraced by the power of compassion. At the third yana, Tantrayana, they are turned into clarity right on the spot.

Second problem here , you might be stuck in the first step, first yana, seeking for calm and equanimity, using Dharma as a good medecine. And yet Dharma is here to really make a big mess, put the fire to your house of beliefs, totally put things upside down.

So ploughing clouds...digging the dirt as peter Gabriel would say. And realizing that this is really The Dharma field, and dirt is another form of light.

Yes, yes! This monkey mind has spent countless hours on the cushion trying to put the cloud back together, smooth it over and turn it into icing on the moon! This mind has only scuffed the surface of the cloud so as not to stir it up too much, to keep the illusion of order in its life. What it has really needed, though, is deep digging, turning it over and over and over again. Ice is smoother than crashing waves but hurts like hell when you whack your head against it over and over again. Crashing waves may knock you over and take you to where you do not choose to go but such is their nature. Moon, clouds, ice, waves...existence.

Thank you for going into the symbolism - what's interesting is that even without understanding of the symbolism, the heart of the matter is still there, can be intuited; as though the images are somehow beyond concepts and contain something of reality - I can't explain and am making a mess of it; just something felt.

Taigu, I just re-read this post. I've had quite the week, dealing with some very painful things right now. This teaching, the dharma, it has helped me so much. The clouds are there, yes, and sometimes they hurt so bad I don't know what to do or where to turn to get rid of them, and Mara is screaming!!! However, I am learning to not turn anywhere, but inside, to the Buddha within, and then, there is the moon, beyond the clouds. And I am learning that the dharma is so much more than calming the mind!!

I have been stuck in clouds, turned to fog for many months now. Reading this, and having others who understand how hard it can be to tell that "Gorilla" to stop thundering around has quieted some of the rushing in my soul.

A few tears came reading this, but they were cleansing and washed the dirt off my soul.

I too often seem to be stuck in the first stage, having a go at myself for my mind not being calm. I guess I am subtly trying to grasp at something else when what I should be doing is waking up to life in front of my eyes.

Thanks Taigu, I did not know of the yanas either. Always teaching, always learning.
Gassho, Jakudo.

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk

Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
"Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
寂道